Goblintown launches driver’s license NFTs ahead of ‘Really Hard Driving Game’ release

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Truth Arts — formerly known as Truth Labs, the team behind the 2022 Goblintown Ethereum NFT collection — has released NFT “licenses” inspired by driver’s licenses.

To become eligible to mint a Goblintown license, aspiring drivers had to wait for a seemingly endless amount of time with no end in sight in a DMV. In this case, the wait was at the Goblintown DMV, which was a webpage with a DMV simulator. You took a number, waited, waited some more, and ultimately submitted your email address to the team. (You also need to create a DYLI account with that same email address to claim your license.)

When I stumbled upon the DMV simulator shortly after it launched April 1, I didn’t know what the endgame was, but I figured it would probably end in some exclusive reward. I clicked on it to check it out.

I took a number, saw the depressing knowledge of a long wait and some extremely high numbers (like 99,999), and gave up after about 30 seconds.

I had work to do, okay?

Truth CEO and cofounder Alexander Taub said in a post that wait times were anywhere from one to five hours per customer.

The Goblintown DMV is now closed. If you didn’t get the chance to pass idle hours waiting, the NFTs can be bought on secondary marketplaces.

The “license” NFTs can be claimed until this Friday, April 11, according to an X post. They’re minting on the Abstract blockchain. There are six possible character designs: “pumplescroob,” “lord buttbat,” “jug,” “gromblar,” “urki,” and “gobbie.”

When asked why the Goblintown team chose Abstract for its latest NFTs, Taub told Blockworks via email: “We are big fans and friends of Luca, Pudgy Penguins, and the Abstract team. The licenses were first and foremost something that we wanted people to be able to physically redeem (if they choose to),” he said, adding: “We are also building more things for Abstract, this just happened to leapfrog those things.”

The NFTs can be “burned,” or removed from the blockchain permanently, in exchange for real-life physical versions of the licenses.

The licenses are thematically tied to the upcoming Goblintown racing game, Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game, which was announced back in February.

It’s technically not a crypto game, though. The game won’t require any NFTs to play, but it won’t be free-to-play, either (exact pricing is TBD).

“This game is very purposefully a non-Web3 game. The first reason is that you cannot have anything crypto- or token-related and be in good standing on Steam, which is where we will be first distributing the game. This is the number one marketplace for indie games, so that made the decision for us,” Taub explained.

“The second reason is we wanted to make a game that is fun and entertaining and something people WANT to play, not because they might make money or speculate on it. We are building an entertainment and technology company, and creating entertaining games is something we need to deliver on outside of speculative digital assets. So the game has IP origins with Goblintown and our original digital collection, but it is our attempt to build ourselves into a character IP brand,” the CEO continued.

On April 20, Goblintown is hosting an IRL event in New York City where invitees can try to beat the game for $10,000 in cash.

The game will also be on offer IRL at Pax East in Boston next month and at DreamHack in Dallas at the end of next month. At all of these events, those with NFT licenses will be able to cut the line to play the game.

“We figure you waited at the digital DMV for a minimum of an hour (to 5 hours!), so we can let you skip the line. In the future, we might come up with more fun little things, but tying it to the actual in-game is not something we plan to do,” Taub told Blockworks.

Like Really Hard Driving Game’s title suggests, it’s intended to be very difficult to play.

“This isn’t just about skill — it’s about nerves, instinct, and maybe a little bit of chaos. Goblintown has always thrived on unpredictability, and this challenge is no exception,” Taub said in a press release.

Goblintown: Really Hard Driving Game has echoes of Yuga Labs’ Dookey Dash, which was a difficult driving game with obstacles that was released for a limited time beginning in January 2023.

The original Dookey Dash was also for degens and competitive gamers, but it required a “Sewer Pass” NFT to access the game. The winning Dookey Dash key ultimately sold for $1.6 million in February 2023. In September 2024, Yuga Labs released a free-to-play, newer version of the game.

Goblintown’s Really Hard Driving Game will launch before the end of this month, Taub confirmed to Blockworks.